Professor Peter J. Boettke
pboettke@gmu.edu
Department of Economics
Enterprise 324
ECON821/Fall 2011
Enterprise 318
Monday
4:30-7:10pm
Office Hours: by appointment
History of Economic Thought II
1.0
Course Description
This course is designed to provide the student with a survey of the history of modern
(20th century) economic thought beginning with the subjective utility and marginal
analysis revolution of the late 19th century, the methodological disputes of the 1930s and
1950s (historicism, institutionalism, positivism, and formalism), the development of the
formal model of general competitive equilibrium, the ascendancy of Keynesianism, the
counter-revolution in macroeconomics, the development of law and economics, public
choice and new institutionalism, and the rediscovery of political economy in the later
decades of the 20th century. We will end with a discussion of what we have learned from
the 20th century journey of economic thought that may impact the development of
economic ideas in the 21st century.
Given my own background and inclinations, the fate of the Austrian school of economics
will be central to the narrative we will be constructing. But the Austrian school is by no
means the exclusive focus of the class discussion.
2.0
Course Readings
You are expected to do all the reading prior to class. Readings that are not from the
required books will be available through the online discussion group. Do not skip any of
the readings.
• Blaug, M. 1997. Economic Theory in Retrospect (5th ed.)
• Buchanan, J. 1962. Public principle on Public Debt, Vol. 2 in The Collected Works of James
M. Buchanan.
• Hayek, F. 1948. Individualism and Economic Order.
• Hayek, F. 1933 & 1935. The Prices and Production, and other works on Money, the Business
Cycle and the Gold Standard
• Keynes, J. 1936. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
• Kirzner, I. 1960. The Economic Point of View. Boettke and Sautet, ed., The Collected Works
of Israel M. Kirzner, Vol. 1.
• Kirzner, I. 1963. Market Theory and the Price System. Boettke and Sautet, ed., The Collected
Works of Israel M. Kirzner, Vol. 2.
• Mises, L. 1949. Human Action. Pocket Edition.
• Mises, L. 1922. Socialism.
• Rothbard, M. 1962. Man, Economy and the State w/ Power and the Market (Scholars ed.),
Pocket Edition.
• Samuelson, P. 1997. Economics: The Original 1948 Edition
3.0
Grading Policy
Grades for this class will be determined on the basis of class participation (including
online class discussion, 20% of final grade), take-home final (5 essay questions, 20% of
final grade), and a research paper (60% of final grade). The research paper will be held
to the standard of suitable or potentially suitable for submission to a field journal in
history of thought. It will be impossible to receive a high mark in this class without
writing a high quality paper.
4.0
Lectures
DATE
TOPIC
READING
August 29
Does Economics Have a
Useful Past?
Blaug, chapter 1
Stigler 1969
Boulding 1971
Boettke, Coyne and Leeson
2011
September 5
September 12
LABOR DAY
The Economic Point of View
September 19
The Socialist Challenge
Blaug, chapter 7
Rothbard 1995, Vol. 2, chapter
9-13 [online]
September 26
The Mises Moment
Mises 1922
Mises 1949, chapter 11-13,
25-26
October 3
Tuesday, October 11
Istanbul
Market Socialism
October 17
Pre-Keynesian
Macroeconomics
Blaug, chapter 5, 12, 15
Mises 1949, chapter 17-21
Hayek 1933 and 1935
October 24
Keynesian Economics
Blaug, chapter 16
Samuelson 1948, chapter 1118
Hayek 1931, 1932
Blaug, chapter 2, 4, 6, 8
Kirzner 1960
Blaug, chapter 11, 13
Mises 1949
Hayek 1948, chapter 7, 8, 9
2
Mises 1949, chapter 27-36
Rothbard 1962, chapter 11-12
October 31
The Political Economy of
Keynes
Buchanan 1962
Samuelson 1948, chapter 7-8,
18
Buchanan and Wagner 1977
[online]
Rothbard 1962, chapter 12
November 7
The Samuelson-Rothbard
Divide: Post WWII Political
Economy
Samuelson 1948
Rothbard 1962
[focus on the structure of the
respective books and the
explicit purpose each author
attributes to the book and the
discipline of economics]
November 14
The Counter-Revolution in
Economics
Nobel Lectures in Economic
Science [online]
Hayek 1974
Friedman 1976
Stigler 1982
Buchanan 1986
Coase 1991
Becker 1992
North 1993
Lucas 1995
V. Smith 2002
Phelps 2006
Ostrom 2009
November 21
SEA/SDAE Conference
November 28
The Development of Market
Theory and the Price System
Blaug, chapter 9, 10, 11
(theory of profit)
Mises 1949, chapter 14-16
Hayek 1948, chapter 2, 4, 5
Kirzner 1963
December 5
Does Economics Have a
Promising Future?
Blaug, chapter 17
Hayek 1948, chapter 1
Mises 1949, chapter 39
Boettke 2010
Boettke 2011
3
Additional References with links
Boettke 2010, “20th Century Economic Methodology.”
http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/files/boettke-on-20th-century-methodology.pdf
Boettke, 2011, “Economics for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
http://journal.apee.org/index.php/Spring2011_1
Boettke, Coyne and Leeson, 2011, “Earw(h)ig: I cannot hear you because your ideas are
old.”
Boulding, K. 1971. “After Samuelson, Who Needs Smith?”
http://hope.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/3/2/225
Buchanan and Wagner 1977. Democracy in Deficit.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Buchanan/buchCv8c0.html
Rothbard, M. 1995. Classical Economics: An Austrian Perspective on the History of
Economic Thought, Vol. 2. http://mises.org/books/histofthought2.pdf
Stigler, G. “Does Economics Have a Useful Past?”
http://hope.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/1/2/217?ssource=mfc&rss=1
Nobel Lectures in Economics Science
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/
4